03 — The Sermon on the Mount
The first and greatest of Matthew’s five discourses (Matt. 5–7): the Beatitudes, the salt and light, the six antitheses (“you have heard… but I say to you”), the Lord’s Prayer, and the house built on rock — the fullest single block of the Lord’s moral teaching in the New Testament. These files read the Sermon as the charter of the Kingdom and unfold the typology, ancient in the Church, of Christ as the New Moses giving the New Law from the mountain.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Apostle and Evangelist)
No passage of Scripture is more identified with the First Gospel than the Sermon on the Mount, and none has been more continuously expounded — by Chrysostom in his Homilies on Matthew, by Augustine in a dedicated treatise, and across the whole ascetical tradition of the East. Matthew gathers the teaching into a single mountain discourse where Luke gives a shorter sermon “on a level place,” and the framing is deliberate: Jesus ascends the mountain, sits as the teacher, and delivers a law that both fulfils and transcends the Law of Sinai. This section examines the Sermon’s content and structure — Beatitudes, antitheses, the Our Father, the warnings against anxiety and judging — and the New-Moses typology by which the Church has read it, with care to distinguish the typology the Fathers draw from the historical-critical questions it raises.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Sermon on the Mount | The content and structure of Matt. 5–7: the Beatitudes, salt and light, the six antitheses, the Lord’s Prayer, “seek first the kingdom,” and the two ways; Chrysostom’s exposition and the Sermon’s place in Orthodox ascetical teaching. |
| The New Moses and the New Law | The typology of Christ as the New Moses: the mountain, the sitting teacher, “but I say to you,” and the fulfilment (not abolition) of the Law (Matt. 5:17); the patristic reading and the modern discussion of the Moses-parallel across Matthew. |
See Also
- The Gospel of Matthew — the discourse structure of which the Sermon is the first member
- The Jewish Gospel — the relation to the Law and the Prophets
- The Parables of the Kingdom — the Kingdom the Sermon proclaims
- Christology — Christ as Lawgiver and the New Adam/New Moses
References
- The Holy Gospel according to Matthew 5–7. Cited by chapter and verse.
- John Chrysostom. Homilies on the Gospel of St. Matthew, Homilies 15–25 (on Matt. 5–7). NPNF I/10.
- Augustine of Hippo. Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Vol. 6.
- Davies, W. D., and Dale C. Allison. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew. ICC. 3 vols. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1988–1997.